Slain cop honored where he fell

Fellow officers, friends gather in Englewood alley

August 24, 2001|By Shia Kapos, Tribune staff reporter.

Chicago Tactical Officer Andre Green returned Thursday to the block where his partner Eric D. Lee was killed, but he couldn't bring himself to walk around the corner to the alley where the shooting took place.

"I can't do it," an emotional Green said, slumping next to a van parked at 63rd and Aberdeen Streets.

Dozens of police officers, friends, residents, community activists and ministers went on to the spot where the 37-year-old husband and father was killed Sunday night. Later, hundreds more gathered for visitation at A.R. Leak and Sons Funeral Chapels.

As CTA Green Line trains rumbled overhead, participants in the morning memorial spoke of the need to press the fight against crime.

"I hope this incident doesn't destroy the work that has been done to improve Englewood," said Lynda Jones, a community activist with On Our Own, a domestic violence group for women.

Rev. Anthony Williams, a pastor at St. Stephen's Evangelical Lutheran Church, helped organize the event at the site of the shooting. "Perhaps if Aloysius Oliver had a shovel in his hand instead of a gun, maybe this wouldn't have happened," he said. "Young people need an alternative [to drugs and gangs]."

Oliver is a 26-year-old ex-convict who is charged with shooting Lee when he, Green and another police officer tried to break up a fight in the alley. Oliver is being held without bond in Cook County Jail.

Williams on Thursday urged city leaders to fund programs to get young people off the streets. "We have a responsibility to respond to what's happening," he said.

Green, who was Lee's partner for nearly 10 years, said now is the time for community to heal. "I hope this can lead to good things here," he said.

Berdean Buford, a 61-year-old resident of the Southeast Side, was one of several people who turned out to honor Lee although they had never met the man that fellow officers called "the nicest of guys."

"I felt close to him," she said after leaving the funeral home. "He was the kind of person I would want to know."

Services for Lee will be held at 11 a.m. Friday in Salem Baptist Church, 11816 S. Indiana Ave.